Wednesday, November 3, 2010

For one of my classes I do volunteer PR work for a non-profit, Project Read, based out of the Provo City Library. This week, we are assigned to write a feature story for our organization, so I met with a man, Eddie, to interview him.

As I walked up to the Library I noticed B-Money exiting. And as soon as he saw me he walked over to me, shook my hand and started to talk. For those of you who have not been graced by B-Money's presence, let me introduce you:

B-Money is from Provo, he's mentally challenged and he's a rapper. He's become an icon throughout Provo, and whenever you talk to him it's as though you're best friends. He's genuinely interested in people (last year Taylor ran into him at Smiths at 6 a.m. buying envelopes to write missionaries) and he has a powerful testimony that he bares easily and without pretense. Basically, he's popular because he's a horrible rapper (see proof here) and because he's everyone's friend. As he came to say hi I told him what I was up to and then he said he was going for a walk because the day was so beautiful. He then invited me to join him. Just like that. After declining he made sure I had his number so we could go for a walk sometime, if I wanted.

"I just want you to know, I got your back. I mean it."

and then as I walked away he turned around to yell, "Good luck with your interview!"

As for Eddie, he is a student at Project Read, getting tutored on spelling and reading, so he can pass his GED. He was pleasant to talk to: soft spoken and articulate. However, I walked out feeling depressed. Here was a 26 year old man, about five feet tall, blond hair and grey eyes, who grew up in a trailer home in "the most ghetto part of Utah" in a "dysfunctional home" surrounded by narcotics and abuse, who struggles with ADHD, bipolar disorder and potentially dyslexia, but smiles, talks about his hopes and dreams, and his choices to be an adult and get away from bad situations.

As I drove home, I realized that these interactions played perfectly on the most tender parts of my personality. Here are people who deal with shit-bad-luck, but do absolutely the best they can with the situation they were given. They have hope for the future, they are friendly and genuine and they are joyful. That's what it is, Eddie and B-Money are full of joy. Eddie was full of joy at improving themselves, both through reading and classes at UVU, he was full of joy at living and enjoying the nature of Utah. Bryan (B-Money) was full of joy at the day, at meeting a friend and being able to care for someone else.

And what about me? I feel sorry for myself, I struggle to accentuate my talents and I want to be better than other people without wanting to work for it. I do want to help people, and I know I'd get that fulfillment through one-on-one work, like tutoring, but it feels so small-scope it's not something I find myself wanting to do. And maybe that's exactly why I need to do it. I don't need to add more to my life, I just need to spend the time reaching out to others as genuinely and easily as two men did today.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Other mornings I get up, well, I wake up long enough to turn off my alarm and crash back in bed.

And then there are mornings like today when I get up, take a shower, get dressed, do my hair, and get back in bed.

Ugh.

It's really not that big a deal except it leads me to hyper-analyzing everything I have to do and needless to say, it gets stressful.

But - the past couple days have been good.

Tuesday night I went with McKenzie to Austin's little league football play-off game. I think I deserve an award. McKenzie and I went, all bundled up, and sat at Mountain View High School, watching these little kids throw a pigskin around. I kind of ignored the game; partly because it would have taken effort to see the game, partly because I was talking to McKenzie and partly because I just didn't care. Then it started to snow on us. It was ridiculously cold, but we had fun.

First snow of the year. Here's McKenzie.

Then I woke up to this yesterday:

I actually really do like the snow. Especially yesterday; the cold white stuff is beautiful when it covers everything at the very first of the season. Flowers and grass were still thriving, so it's gorgeous to see delicate and bright plants covered with a layer of glistening ice. It was a fun walk to campus that morning. Plus, I really do love getting bundled up and enjoying the snow.

Yesterday, for one of my PR classes, we had a press conference. That doesn't sound like much, but here's the quick version of how it went down:

A week ago our professor walked into class as if she were our CEO and we were her in-house PR team. She said they were closing a plant in a tiny town (devastating to the town) and we needed to prep a Q&A sheet for the news conference next week. In preparation for a press conference PR people will gather all potential questions with appropriate answers so the spokesperson can be prepared. Well, there's really only so much preparation you can make. You are always asked something you don't have an answer to. Anyway, yesterday our group faced a group of communication professors (journalists and broadcast) who grilled us. It was really intimidating, especially when Professor Walton purposefully created a crisis situation by having one professor act as the mayor of the town who created a situation we could not have prepared for.

I walked out feeling like I couldn't breathe. It got my blood going and I loved it. Plus, this experience is something most kids don't experience until they're on the job.

I love my major.

Last night I got a package from Mom and Dad. It was a harness and leash for Jovi. Look at how awesome he is! Thanks so much!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I've been wanting something fuzzy and cute for a while (puppy, kitten, rabbit. . .) and so on Friday I was looking online at available creatures and I thought to myself, "why not?" So, after 12 hours of time (to ensure it wasn't an impulse buy) I drove myself to Spanish Fork and came back with this two-month old, mini-lop/mini-Rex bunny.

He's already a favorite among the roommates.

p.s. Philip/Elizabeth , I'm sorry you won't get to meet him for a while. I'll see what I can do about bringing him home for Christmas.

Monday, October 11, 2010

I had a weird moment today. I was writing in my journal about looking forward to coming home for Thanksgiving and I mentioned that I'll be the only kid coming to San Jose. "The Hydes will be in Idaho and the Hursts will be in Ohio". That's kind of weird.

Welcome to another step in life: The grouping of family by last name. Another thing I realized is we'll all have different last names so it'll be easy to label everyone.

Anyway, just a random thought. Here are a few more for your possible enjoyment:

I really like my writings of Isaiah class. Hopefully I'm learning the Isaiah mindset so when I study it on my own I'll be able to understand it as easily as I do in class.

I've never felt more overwhelmed, nor more capable of accomplishing everything I have to do.

My jeans don't fit. It's annoying.

I love my iPhone 4. Thanks again Mom and Dad!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving because of family, San Jose and warm carbs.

The NYT crossword puzzle kicked my butt this morning, which is unusual for a Monday.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Here's my newest craft, thanks to one of my blogs! I took little plastic toys, put eyelet screws in them, spray painted them and now I have cool jewelry/whatever I want. Check them out!

Here are a few of my favorites.

All week I've been working on my reliquary for ceramics. Since I don't have any finger bones to enshrine, I decided to make mine in respect for my love of traveling and languages. I'll get some pictures up next week, but for now I'll just say I'm really excited with how it's turning out.

After Saturday, Utah will officially shut down all its fireworks stands. Weird to see them up so long after the Fourth of July, but it's a fun culture thing, I guess.

Thursday night Elizabeth's friend, Mikaila, came into town for the weekend and she is staying with me. I like her, so it's been good to have everyone hanging out. Friday night the three girls went to the mall before meeting Philip and Taylor at Bangkok Grill (Delicious) for a late lunch.

Saturday Elizabeth, Mikaila, Taylor and I walked around the Provo Saturday-morning Farmers Market. We tried a Mango smoothy with Boba, different types of honey and looked at all the different hand crafts. One of the coolest things was a guy who served his mission in Hungary and brought back the traditional dessert Kürtös Kalács. Also, Taylor spotted two of the Hurst's greatest weakness.

I almost brought it home. A mini-lop bunny. Awwwww.

After we had lunch at JDawgs with Boyd and Betty (aka Elder and Sister Helquist) and then went to their place where we made Hooch, admired the birds and the garden and chatted. I love the two of them. They are so welcoming and its so pleasant to just be there together. San Juan blood runs thick.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

This week I started my internship at the law school. A while ago I got in contact with BYU's Law School (thanks to some help from Jessi) and I got hired to work with the public relations department in the law school. It's been fun to get in the groove and have some projects to work on. I'll let you know when I have something more definitive to share.

Also this week, we've been working on throwing in ceramics. It's been a blast! Needless to say, Philip has been having a hey-day every day. As soon as I got my clay-hands back I have been throwing like crazy and I love it. I've definitely been trying new things. As soon as I have some finished works I'll post some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, here's the camera case I made out out of a canvas poster I took from campus.

In other crafty news, I bought a pair of guy's jeans (that were too short) for 6 dollars from a second hand store and sewed them into shorts.

And the backpack I made from the canvas poster and Dad's orange straps.

Friday night Taylor and I had a date night. We started by having dinner at Gloria's Little Italy, an amazing little restaurant in Provo started by a family from Northern Italy. The food is amazing. We got pasta and dessert and our waiter was one of Taylor's friends so we had a really pleasant time.

Then, we went and saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. Uh-May-Zing. The personalities and emotion they put into these plastic cartoon things are unreal. I cried, definitely did, and it's easy to see why McKenzie and Dad had their heart strings pulled at.

One of my favorite things was the short at the start of the film, Day and Night. There was one problem with movie: we went and saw the 9:50 show so there weren't any little kids. Since I'm a kid a heart, I was laughing and expressing my enjoyment of the movie, but no one else did. Lame.

When I go see Despicable Me this week, I'm going to go in the late afternoon so I can laugh with all the little ones.

This last month has been the FIFA World Cup and today was the final, Spain vs Netherlands. Sadly Germany lost in the semi-finals and Brasil was knocked out even earlier, so our personal ties weren't strong. Neither country has won a World Cup, and it was an intense game going into the 30 minute extra time. I think there were a total of nine yellow cards and one red card. You could tell both teams wanted it. The teams were pretty easily matched, but Spain's goal in the 108th minute agreed with my thought that they had a little bit of an edge over Netherlands.

Taylor and I invited Philip and Elizabeth over for the event (they made Vuvuzelas) and Lindsay and Lauren and Alex ended up coming over too. (Lindsay and Lauren were in town for a missionary farewell and so we invited Alex over.) So, the event turned into a party with cookies, Coke, home-made Pizza and garlic bread and home-made Frosties. Solid party, if I should say so myself.

Monday, July 5, 2010

The Fourth of July has always been an interesting time, as far as holidays are concerned, for me. I have memories of block parties in San Jose with the notorious illegal fireworks from Dave Sidon, the kid's favorite neighbor, but when it comes to traditions or what I like to do, there isn't anything specific. So, though not very Red, White and Blue-y to some, my weekend was celebratory in a fantastic way.

Friday, after a disappointing morning for Philip where Brazil was kicked out of the World Cup, I spent some time playing with mud in the ceramics studio with Philip and getting some library stuff done for English.

Then the parties began with hamburgers at Fudruckers with Taylor before meeting up with Philip and Elizabeth. We tried to watch Toy Story 3, but it was sold out. So instead we got Triple Thick Shakes from McDonalds and went to the nicklecade. I didn't get the impression that Philip and Elizabeth were too excited about NickleCity, but we had a blast! We played Skee ball (which is always one of my favorites), the Simpson game, shot plastic rifles and used our hard-won tickets to buy mini-umbrellas, mustaches and magnets. Overall, pretty solid time.

Then, because we can't get enough of each other, we decided to see Robin Hood in the dollar theater. It was pretty good. The other three really liked it, but I wasn't emotionally drawn in by it much, so it was just okay for me. Definitely worth the two dollars though.

Saturday morning I watched Germany dominate their game 4-0 versus Argentina and move to the semi-finals for the third consecutive time. Germany over all!!

Saturday was also one of Taylor's army buddies, Colten's, birthday so we drove up to Pleasant Grove for a barbeque hosted by his wife, Sam. It was a quiet little shindig. The best part was the two big cherry trees in the back yard loaded with perfectly ripe little fruits. We picked a bunch and teased Sam for buying inferior store ones.

For weird the four of us (Taylor, Colten, Sam and I) drove up to Holladay (right next to Nielsens' Frozen Custards) to a sports bar called A Bar Named Sue to watch the UFC fight. I had a blast. The bar was well lit, and catered to my demographic so the people were there to watch the fight and be social, not just to get plastered. We claimed a little spot in the more private pool room, and after some free games we watched Brock Lesnar (a 275 pound gorilla) fight. I'm not one to be into fighting, but it was fun to pick a side and be there together watching them go at it. UFC isn't boxing, for those who don't know, it's a mix of street fighting and martial arts. There are rules, yes, but think cage match with a ref. Sadly Nielsens was closed by the time we left so we missed that but we did catch a great fireworks show right outside of Grammie's condo.

I love summer! Warm firework-filled nights, sunny Sunday drives and cherry picking again today. Taylor and I decided to pick cherries from the same place as Saturday and make jam and cherry pie. The picking was successful, but we got burnt out after pitting a pound of cherries. Luckily Jeff Morain was in town so we kept us company as we worked, but we gave up. Especially since we picked probably 15 pounds of fruit.

Yes, Jeff Morain. I haven't seen him since before his mission! It is fun to see a friendly San Jose-face and other than being a little more mellow, he's the same kid. It was low key, and I'm glad he wanted to come over and see me for a while before heading back up to BYU-Idaho tonight. By the way, random question: Why did BYU-I stop calling itself Ricks College?

It's another mellow night here in Provo. I just bought a ticket to visit McKenzie in New York the end of this month. I'm very excited. Austin will be in Chicago so it'll be a regular girls' weekend.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

I'm sorry I've been MIA. Here are some pictures of what's been going on lately!

Love you all!

Taylor and I hiked up Bridal Veil Falls. We tried to get to the second tier of the waterfall. It was intensely steep and dangerous so we turned around. We must have gone the wrong way at one point, but the view was amazing!

This is a picture of our path. (Bottom right corner)

A few of our cooking adventures!

(Mormon cocktail)

(Taco Salad)

After my friend, Breanne's, wedding reception we took a picnic up the hill and watched the sunset over the entire valley. It was so fun to watch the lights slowly illuminate the scene below.

Just one picture from the Sonntag's June party.

We called this adventure Fire Casserole.

A Thai salad I made for one of the NBA final games.

My first rodeo!!

Last night I made challah (a Jewish bread). It was amazing. Especially with honey and butter.